Generally, a multi-wheel drive vehicle is any vehicle that has more than one wheel that is used to power or drive the vehicle. Examples of such vehicles include two and four wheel drive wheelchairs. Driving such vehicles in straight lines does not pose significant control issues. However, this is generally not the case when driving such vehicles into turns. More specifically, to drive a multi-wheel drive vehicle into a turn requires that each of the wheel drives have differing velocities in order to achieve the turn.
If these differing velocities are not properly realized in the wheel drives, several undesirable consequences result. For example, if one or more of the wheel drives has a velocity below that required to make the turn at a particular vehicle speed, those affected wheel drives will at least partially “drag” along the riding surface. This is undesirable for several reasons. First, it creates wear on the wheel component of the wheel drive. Second, it creates wear on the riding surface. If the riding surface is, for example, a carpet, then such carpet may be damaged by such dragging action. If one or more of the wheel drives has a velocity above that required to make the turn, the vehicle will not effectively make the desired turn because the vehicle suffers from understeer. Additionally, such non-optimal control of the wheel drives leads to higher energy consumption by the vehicle, which significantly reduces the vehicle's range. Hence, it desirable to provide a system and method for controlling a multi-wheel drive vehicle that does not suffer these drawbacks.